


Port

by FallacyFallacy



Category: Ensemble Stars! (Video Game)
Genre: Community: fan_flashworks, First Kiss, M/M, Sentimental, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-10
Updated: 2019-02-10
Packaged: 2019-10-25 13:29:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,051
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17726087
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FallacyFallacy/pseuds/FallacyFallacy
Summary: The Marine Bio Club room was created to Kanata's exact specifications - a place only for him. Somehow, Souma fits.





	Port

**Author's Note:**

> Set post The Cat in the Snowy Winter and the Camellia Train, but you don't need to have read that to understand this. I myself still have much to read, so apologies if this contradicts a story!  
> Title from Izzard's [Port Town](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcueHSPMWik), the background music for this fic.

Winter is the worst time of the year, so Kanata buys a new fish.

It’s a big one so carrying everything to the club room takes several trips – first the fish itself, which is released temporarily into one of his pre-existing tanks, then the new tank, and finally the tank contents (the fishy needs to have something to entertain it when none of the club members are around, after all!). The tank in particular is big and awkward, and he’s forced to set it down to take a breath and rub warmth back into his hands several times. When he places it on the stone barrier around the fountain, he throws the icy contents a longing, pitiful glance.

Back in the room, he waves away all thoughts of nose-biting winds and non-liquid water and sets to work assembling the tank, ripping apart the sachets of sand with childish glee and assembling the kid of underwater fairy-tale land any young child would dream of.

The fish doesn’t watch him. Kanata considers that fair: it has more than enough on its plate right now.

There’s a faucet nearby, thankfully, and that combined with a long length of hose soon has the tank filling. It’s very loud, and Kanata doesn’t really like that, but three years of idol work have made him a lot less sensitive there. He drags a chair over and sits, watching the water level slowly rising. 

Being here doesn’t clear his mind in the same way that lying in the fountain does, but there’s something potentially even more comforting about this club room. It’s something he created all by himself, to his exact desires. There had never been a Marine Bio Club before in Yumenosaki – the student council president at the time had made him repeat the request three times – but that had been part of the point. It’s impractical, in a way totally and irrevocably different to his idol ambitions; but, those had actually gone surprisingly well for him, hadn’t they? Until they _really_ hadn’t.

He swings his arms, but the water level is closing in on the top of the tank, so he swings hard and stands up to turn off the water.

From here there are some adjustments – fishies also don’t like their water to be too cold, Kanata notes with approval, and while the comparison between salt levels and soy sauce might be stretching it, he still fancies himself a kindred spirit. Finally, he steps back, nodding at his work.

Here’s the best part.

He retrieves the container he had carried the fish in and scoops it like a goldfish at a festival. As usual, it’s captured instantly, and Kanata almost thinks he sees a sigh of relief in its temporary tankmates.

Now, he takes it over to his new home. He pauses, savouring the moment, and lets it swim.

After the initial splash it darts around, unsure of itself; Kanata wonders with some sadness whether it has been some time since it was last in such a large enclosure. It swims in circles for a while, clearly agitated. But after a few minutes, it settles, even sinking downwards to probe the rubber plants at the tank’s base.

Yes, Kanata thinks with a long sigh: this is entirely different to the satisfaction of completing a live, panting and sweaty, audience before him and Ryuuseitai on either side – but not a bit worse.

Sounds tend to echo here, so it takes Kanata a moment to realise the noise is coming from outside.

“Kamegorou! Do not hang your head any long-” Souma stops a couple of steps inside the door, ponytail swishing. His expression immediately shifts into one of great glee. “Buchou-dono! I had not considered that you might also be here!”

While Kanata takes in this new development, Souma bounds forward, fists clenched in excitement. “What brings you to the club room today, Buchou-dono? It has been some hours since school ended.”

“Hello, Souma,” Kanata responds languidly. “Hmm… I suppose it was the fountain that brought me here, in a way…?”

Souma stares and then grabs at Kanata’s forearms. “You-you did not enter it, did you?! In such cold weather that would surely be disastrous to your health – no, surely even Buchou-dono would not-”

“I did not enter the fountain.” Souma relaxes immediately, breathing a sigh of relief. “However, because I am not able to… I must spend my time elsewhere.”

“Ah.” Souma smiles again, understandingly. “Yes, this dark winter does restrict our activities quite significantly. Truly, its unforgiving nature cannot be impressed enough… and that is how I have been occupied today!”

Kanata listens; no matter what he says, Souma always sounds so enthusiastic.

“You see, while I was walking I happened upon a small kitten hiding in a bush. Given the weather, I naturally vowed to protect it with my life! However, it soon became clear that Hana actually belonged to a cosy cat cafe nearby… Unfortunately, I was forced to part with her. However, enjoying her warmth for that short period reminded me most fondly of my first pet, here in our clubroom! And so I came to see Kamegorou again, and ensure that his enclosure is as warm and comfortable for such a cold-blooded creature as ever...”

As he speaks, Souma wanders off, sighing with affection as he catches sight of his beloved turtle. 

“Ah… look how he basks! Despite the vicissitudes of the world outside, Kamegorou’s room will always be warm… I feel so honoured that my humble self may be able to grant you your paradise!”

He stands there for a while like that, looking at the turtle from various angles and rambling on. He wonders aloud whether to take him out at one point, only to decide not to, as the change in temperature my shock his fragile system. Pleased that his junior is taking good care of his pet, Kanata returns to his fish.

It seems far more comfortable now, even with Souma’s added presence and noisiness. It floats around, long fins dragging behind it, painting the water as it twirls. He still doesn’t understand why nobody else finds these sea creatures beautiful, and while Kanata may have wanted to create a place for just himself here, that part genuinely disappoints him.

“Oooh… I don’t think I have seen this one before!” He feels Souma’s presence, warm in expression as much as body. “Is he new? He is truly a sight to behold!”

“...yes.” Kanata nods. “I bought him today. That is what I have been doing this afternoon.”

The fish swims a little faster as Souma approaches, but doesn’t appear stressed. If Kanata didn’t know better, he’d think it was excited.

“He seems to like it here already,” Souma says in a low murmur.

There is a certain dreamlike quality to the club room regardless of external time – there is typically no sound beyond the bubbling of the tanks, the occasional splashing of water, and Souma’s gushing (or outbursts, if Kaoru is here that day). Today, it’s even more silent, as all other club and unit activities have ended and the school beyond the door is empty; if the snow has begun to fall again, it can’t be heard here, either.

But true solitude comes when the windows go dark and the room is left near-black, lit up entirely by the luminescent glow of the tanks. The radiance is entirely different to that of terrestrial sunlight, only made more surreal by the alien lifeforms cradled within. It almost makes one feel like something more than human, observing a collection of planets dotted through space, gazing in at the products of various divergent strands of evolution.

Here, now, Kanata focuses on the fish; when he blurs his eyes, the brilliant colours blur and smear into a rainbow cloud, brighter than any Ryuuseitai concert, a solo performance only for him. It soothes a part of his soul he can’t describe.

“Do you have a name for him?”

The deep tone only barely shakes Kanata from his thoughts. Instead, his eyes catch on something unexpected, refocusing. Abruptly, the fish is hidden by the reflection of his own expressionless face – and beside him, Souma, smiling with deep emotion.

His breath catches.

Only Souma had, so far, been a convert to his teachings of the ocean. But he had been loud and unpredictable and a loyal devotee of Keito, and so Kanata hadn’t known quite what to make of him. Over time, Kanata had come to realise that Souma was as earnest and open as a certain other overly energetic friend of his, and had come to think of him as an adorable junior, unexpectedly trusting and eager to impress him.

He had still never noticed how well he fit here – how right it looked to see their faces together, mirrored by the transparent glass.

In this atmosphere, Kanata’s mind swirls as freely as his new finned friend; standing there, Souma’s eyes blaze like deep clouds lit up purple by stars, and his hair falls as inky black as a river at night. Souma always held the atmosphere of a young man from a different time, but now he had the posture of a legend, immortalised by centuries of humans looking up and drawing lines in the sky.

“Buchou-dono?”

Souma’s eyes are wide, appealing.

That, too, had throw him off course. He had fashioned this identity with care, so that he may not. He would spend his time with that which he enjoyed, and would drive away any who might attempt to see him as ‘perfect’. Others might have bristled, but he relished in the moniker ‘oddball.’ He would live as himself and no other.

And then Souma had appeared, and loved him anyway. Did not seem to even notice, often, that he was ‘strange.’

But that was the differentiating factor. This was not blind obedience – Souma scolded him for endangering his health lazing around in cold water, and competed with him as a rival idol, and pledged loyalty to men who had not exactly had Kanata’s best interests in mind at all times. And through it all, no matter how far Kanata’s mind flew, or how distant other people became, there was always Souma, understanding him implicitly.

“You’re very handsome, huh,” Kanata says.

“Bu-” Souma splutters; yes, this is enjoyable too. “Buchou-dono?!”

Kanata turns, facing Souma head on. His face is half visible, but Kanata knows it completely.

“I was just thinking that.” Kanata murmurs.

Souma seems to swallow. “I, uh… you-you look so serious all of a sudden…!”

“Do I…?”

“ _Yes!_ ” Souma insists vehemently.

Kanata chuckles; he is so full of fire, even at times like this.

“Hmm...am I handsome, too? Do you think?”

Souma’s head tilts forward, inclining towards Kanata even as he tries to cover his face. “Th-this feels… somehow improper...”

Kanata taps at the hand on his cheek, peeling it gently away. “Is it? I’ve never known the rules...”

“W-well…” Souma glances to the side, face shaded in shifting greens and reds by coloured light. “A-an unmarried man and woman should not be so close, in such intimate surroundings… perhaps that applies here…!”

Kanata hums. “I see… though this seems a little different, somehow.”

“Of course it is...” Souma almost moans, head falling forward almost to Kanata’s chest. “A-and, when it is Buchou-dono, I cannot...”

“It’s up to you...~”

Souma still grasping tightly to one of his hands, Kanata lightly touches Souma’s chin with the other and it raises immediately. Yes – there is no doubt of it.

“I think I like you, Souma.”

Souma gasps, eyes full as his unit’s namesake.

“I – yes! I, too-”

Kanata kisses him. He’s waited long enough.

Souma freezes for a moment, spine stiff. But as Kanata coaxes him, gently-gently at the hand and cheek, and his composure drips away, bursting bit by bit and rising far above them. He kisses him softly until Souma joins him in chorus, harmonising instinctively. When he curls his arm around Kanata’s back, his hand is so warm.

Souma snorts, and giggles, and Kanata pulls away to giggle, too. 

“Thank you...” Kanata murmurs, kissing him again; Souma is smiling so, so widely.

If he can belong anywhere in the world, he’s happy for it to be here, surrounded by fins and foam and stars and Souma.

**Author's Note:**

> Please check me out at [@Kanasous](https://twitter.com/KanaSous)!


End file.
